Abstract: The cistern body has an interior in which fittings are to be accommodated. At least one functional part of the inflow or outflow fitting is integrated in the wall of the cistern body. The functional part is preferably a pipe which forms an overflow channel, an inflow channel or an installation channel. The cistern body is preferably produced by blow molding.

Abstract: The invention encompasses method and apparatus for cleaning screen used in screen printing machine for printing of solder paste onto a surface of a printed circuit board. The apparatus includes two upper and lower cleaning chambers 4, 5 which are provided on upper and lower sides of the screen 2 in opposed relationship with each other in such a manner that the two chambers are in watertight contact with the upper and lower surfaces 2A, 2B, of screen 2, respectively and are communicated with each other through openings 2C in the screen 2. The upper and lower cleaning chambers are essential components of the apparatus for carrying out cleaning the solder paste residue adhered to inner peripheral surfaces of the openings 2C in the screen 2 as well as the solder paste residue adhered to the upper and lower surfaces 2A, 2B from the screen 2. A wash liquid supply means is provided for supplying wash liquid into each of the chambers 4, 5 to wash away the past residues adhered to the screen 2.

Abstract: An easy to use, and reuse, separation connector is disclosed that comprises a first component having a plurality of leaf elements with protrusions, and a second component having a recess for receiving the leaf element protrusions. The protrusions of the leaf elements are secured within the recess by a tensioned band; the protrusions and recess are formed so as to provide an efficient and effective load and torque bearing surface that requires minimal tension on the tensioned band. In a preferred embodiment, the tensioned band is detensioned by a thermal device that melts the band. When the band is melted, springs or other devices urge the leaves away from the mating surface, thereby allowing for the separation of the connected items.

Abstract: The satellite communications system of this invention provides high-gain coverage to a wide geographic area with a minimum number of satellites. The satellites each include a high-gain antenna that periodically sweeps the satellite's service area to receive the messages from remote terminal units within the entire service area. In order to provide high gain, the antenna is designed to have a narrow beamwidth in at least one dimension. To cover the entire area, the antenna's field of view is swept across the entire service area. In the preferred embodiment, the antenna's field of view is essentially rectilinear, having a narrow beamwidth in one dimension and a beamwidth that extends across the entire service area in the other dimension, such that the sweeping effect is akin to that of a common push-broom. Because of the high gain of the satellite antenna, communications via the satellite can be accomplished using a low-gain wide-beamwidth antenna at the remote terminal unit.

Abstract: Method of transmitting signals between communication stations via a network, in which a central control station is adapted to transmit a picture of a virtually real ambience to each connected station. In the picture, connected stations are represented by objects which can be displaced by the user of the corresponding station. Other stations such as information sources are represented by stationary objects in the form of buildings. As soon as objects touch or overlap each other, an actual communication connection (for example a telephone conversation, a database consult, a transaction) is established between the corresponding stations. A "chat box" application is also provided, with the particular property that the extent of interaction between conversation partners is dependent on the mutual distance between their corresponding objects in the picture.

Abstract: An image processing method and apparatus are described for polygon rendering in two dimensional screen space, where the rendering includes mapping of texels from a texture map onto pixels within the polygon. The texture map (18) holds fewer texels than would be required to render a full screen of pixels, or even a large polygon, and the rendering process is carried out in a sequence of rendering windows overlying successive areas of a polygon, with the texture memory (18) being refreshed from mass storage (12) as required between windows. Storage (20) is provided for calculated polygon edge data to enable continuous edges to be maintained over two or more rendering windows to avoid discontinuity effects.

Abstract: System for monitoring the discharging/charging cycles of a rechargeable battery which includes adaptive calculation means for providing a predictive indication of when the battery will reach a critical discharge voltage. The adaptive calculation means includes parameters which can be modified by other adaptive calculation means so as to optimize the monitor's performance depending on the battery's actual use. The adaptive calculation means may be neural networks formed by a microprocessor and memory, and the monitor system may be coupled to a host system.

Abstract: A flat-panel display device comprising a substrate, a patterned layer and an absorbing layer, the absorbing layer interposed between the substrate and the patterned layer, the patterned layer being formed of a material having a rate of erosion greater than the rate of erosion of the substrate under powder spraying, and the absorbing layer being of a material capable of absorbing the kinetic energy of particles comprising a powder spray.

Abstract: A valve comprises an inlet and two outlets. The flow to the two outlets is controlled by an integrated valve having two members which operate in conjunction with the two valve seats associated with the outlets. The valve is used in an air-assisted fuel-injection system of an internal-combustion engine, wherein the first outlet of the valve is connected to a bypass of a throttle valve of the engine, and the second outlet of the valve is connected to an air-assisted fuel injector of the fuel-injection system. In this manner, both the atomization of the fuel injected by the fuel injector and the idling speed of the engine are controlled by a single valve.

Abstract: An overvoltage protection circuit is provided for a switched-mode power supply of the type having a transformer with a primary winding, an auxiliary winding, and a secondary winding, with a switching transistor coupled in series with the primary winding. The overvoltage protection circuit includes a sensing resistor having a first terminal directly connected to the auxiliary winding for generating a current proportional to the voltage across the auxiliary winding, with a second terminal of this resistor being coupled to an input of a current mirror. The reflected current output of the current mirror is compared to an overvoltage reference current generated by an overvoltage reference current source by means of a current comparator, and a circuit is provided to generate a signal to turn off the switching transistor when the reflected current exceeds the overvoltage reference current.

Abstract: Moving output images are presented to a two dimensional display, such as a conventional television receiver (26). Three video sources are read from a compact disc, a notional front image and a notional back image being in the form of CD-I A and B planes. A notional back plane is a full frame, full video rate image, read from the disc as a coded MPEG data stream. After decoding, each pixel of each image includes depth data and opacity data. It is thus possible for an image in the notional front or notional middle plane to pass behind an object in the notional back plane. The depth and opacity data is severely compressed for the MPEG stream, by a process of quantisation and run-length encoding. The low resolution depth values for each pixel are converted to high resolution depth values via a look up table in order to further define the depth of each notional plane.

Abstract: In a system which comprises an apparatus, having a connection device with connection contacts, and at least one peripheral device which can be connected to the apparatus and comprises a counter-connection device which can be detachably connected to the connection device and comprises counter-contacts, at least one counter-contact being connected to a resistor provided in the peripheral device, the apparatus comprising a circuit arrangement for determining the value of a resistor, the circuit arrangement is additionally arranged to generate at least one control information item for the peripheral device which comprises an evaluation device for evaluating the control information.

Abstract: A circuit arrangement includes a differential amplifier having two output terminals for supplying two output signals which each have a signal component which is variable about a reference level and is in phase opposition to the other signal component (push-pull signal). A significant improvement of the common-mode rejection is obtained by means of a control circuit adapted to form a sum signal from the output signals, to form a difference signal from the sum signal and a reference signal, and to control the reference level of the two push-pull signals in dependence upon the difference signal.

Abstract: A controlled power supply source is described, which has a parallel control member having a controllable semiconductor component whose load path is arranged between output terminals of the power supply source and whose control input is connected to an output of a control device, the control device having a reference input for supplying a reference voltage. The control device has a control amplifier which is fed from a current bank having at least one constant current source, an actual value input of said control amplifier receiving the voltage between the output terminals of the power supply source, and a nominal value input receiving the reference voltage from the reference input of the control device.

Abstract: A system in which signals can be recorded on or reproduced from a magnetic tape in a cassette, the system comprising standard apparatuses and standard cassettes (29) which are adapted to each other in conformity with a specific standard, which standard cassettes can be positioned correctly on the standard apparatuses by at least one standard locating pin (41) which is engageable in a standard locating aperture (39) of the standard cassette.

Abstract: A switched-mode power supply which uses the primary winding of the isolation transformer as the feedback mechanism for the regulation of the secondary voltage or current. The primary winding voltage and current are used to control the sampling of the primary winding to obtain a measurement signal which is proportional to the secondary voltage or current, and this measurement signal is used to control the switched drive signal. By using the primary winding as the feedback winding, parts can be saved, and the transformer can be of simpler construction.

Abstract: In a cassette for a magnetic tape, which has a housing with a housing wall formed with an access opening for a magnetic head, and a tape-pressure device including a pressure-pad support and, arranged thereon, a pressure pad having an elastic base of a foam material, the foam material has open pores at the surface region which faces the magnetic tape during pressing and a polytetrafluoroethylene layer is anchored in the open pores.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of securing a shaft-bearing bush (3) of a non-weldable material, particularly a sintered metal, in a hole (2) in a metal mounting plate (1), a metal sleeve (4), whose material is weldable to the metal mounting plate (1), being securely press-fitted onto the outer wall (3a) of the shaft-bearing bush (3), the shaft-bearing bush (3) with the press-fitted metal sleeve (4) being introduced into the hole (2) in the metal mounting plate (1) and being locked in the desired axial alignment, and the metal sleeve (4) being welded to the metal mounting plate (1).

Abstract: A digital shift register contains a succession of master-slave flipflops (M/S) which are controlled by a clock signal (H), and also comprises, at least between two master-slave flipflops (M/S), a switching device (C) which enables selection of a serial loading mode or a parallel loading mode for the preceding flipflop. The switching device (C) contains a differential stage (Cs) which is used in the serial mode and which is composed of a pair of transistors (T1, T2), and a differential stage (Cp) which is used in the parallel mode and which consists of at least two differential pairs of transistors (T3, T4 and T3', T4') which are connected in parallel, only a part of the transistors of the output branch (T4') being connected to the input of the flipflop which succeeds the switching device, so that saturation of the input transistor (Te) of this flipflop (M/S) in the parallel loading mode is avoided.